S-Clarke

With Theo it feels as if the club and the player himself is in denial. I think someone close to him needs to have some serious words with him about his plans. He doesn't move very well, his pace has gone, his touch is awful and his strength is non-existent. It's honestly the equivalent of playing with 10 men and it's a waste of a squad space. This isn't 'form' or 'confidence', this is just a lack of genuine ability and physical attributes to be any use to us. I guess he's good around the place and the bonus is having him to mentor the likes of Tella etc, but honestly just give him a job doing that. I hate to see his professional career ending like this with us.

Yeah, Coventry should have won really, bit of a sucker for them. It's a tough call though...we've got two away games in 7 days at the Top 6 teams, I think if I were a manager I'd probably go weakest in this home game with the confidence that the squad we have is good enough...but as I said players like Armstrong, Long, Theo etc let the manager down today, as 'on paper' they should have been able to create more than we did against 'lesser' opposition, but they were all utterly abject. I'm fairly sure the plan today was for Armstrong and co to show up so we didn't have to see Broja, Redmond, Romeu, KWP etc on the pitch.

I think we need to wait for the MLG confirmation...! But I'm sure there is VAR if the game is at a PL ground, which is daft because it then becomes very inconsistent as it's not applied to all.

He's certainly stuck in it at CB, which is weird. He's certainly not going to make a career there but his recovery pace is helpful, but he is still prone to these absolute brain fucks with pass backs. It's like he's programmed to do it at least once a game, he should have cut that out years ago but it's part of his makeup which makes him a very dangerous player. Did ok though, but not really one to count on going forward.

There was VAR I thought, it's in all games if the home ground is a PL one. Their goal was clearly offside, the player who took the shot was onside but it was tapped in by Waghorn who was about 5 yards offside. Didn't need VAR for that, which is why it was odd it took so long for the lino to put his flag up.

On the note of the selection, I think this is probably a case of Ralph being dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't. Players like Armstrong (both Armstrongs), Stephens, Long, Theo etc needed minutes if they are to be of any use to us. This was a dcent opportunity for them to get those minutes and I'm fairly sure that we felt they'd be enough to see us over the line. I think a few players let Ralph down today, I'm sure he'd expected more from them. Two tough away games next week and I could see the logic in rotating strongly today (the easiest of the 3) but the players brought in let him down.

A really substandard showing for me. We started the game very slowly and Coventry had the foothold, if we're honest they were the more composed and tidy team for 60-70% of that game. We were a bit of a rabble to say the least. It's one of those games where you need something out of nothing to get you back into it and Armstrong gave us that, he had no right to score from that. It reminded me of Wayne Thomas's effort at home against Ipswich many, many years ago. Good play by KWP, who improved us on the left when he came on and provided a threat which ultimately lead to the winner. There were big opportunities today for Adam Armstrong in particular and sadly he just looks shot. It looks like the lack of game time and goals has just drained him of anything, he doesn't even look Championship level now which is a shame as he was clearly a decent Championship player. He needs some confidence from somewhere but he also needs refinement in his game, which he doesn't have an inch of. I've seen him many times now and he's just a hectic hit and run player which isn't good enough for the top level. Theo is just not there anymore sadly. It feels like we're flogging a dead horse with him and it's not fair to have his career end watching him look like this. Small has amazing physical attributes from what I saw, reminds me of Micah Richards when he first broke through - that sort of stature to him. A really sloppy style of play though I'd have to say, comes across lazy but that may just be his style. Certainly didn't look ready for the cut and thrust of first team football and would get caught out in the PL playing that way. Willy - great experience. To be honest, dreadful finishing by Coventry but he stood tall on 3 occasions and blocked those shots. For an OAP he has insane reactions to get up for that 2nd shot. Overall, not an amazing night. We won, but one of the worst outcomes generally - 30 extra mins, which we could have done without, and some very horrible looking injuries to a particular key player which we can't really afford to lose, but there we go.

Don't think he'd be one for the future, he'd be one for now. He was a regular for Saint Ettiene from what I can see, got an injury and that has kept him out for a bit.

I thought a loan had been ruled out as an option, but to me it was the only realistic avenue we had really. So if that is open again as an option then of course take it, it's our best and probably only chance of keeping him beyond this season.

But his colleague still posted it on the Daily Echo site with that sensationalised headline! I thought Graeme Bailey used to have decent credibility but that may have changed now.

https://www.90min.com/posts/mohammed-salisu-why-his-january-move-newcastle-fell-through Sounds like there was more in this than speculative interest by Newcastle. Need to see him sign a new deal before the summer, otherwise I think we know how this story plays out!

We've been a bit light in terms of CB's from our academy in recent years (or, a poor judge...maybe...given that we threw Ben White away). Hopefully this guy as well as Simeu (eventually) will start adding to our squad for the first team in the next few years. In the immediate term it beefs up the academy and u23 sides with a bit more quality anyway.

It is tiring supporting let alone managing a club that has to move around talent so much, but I'm hoping this summer will show a change of tact in this regard and allow us an opportunity to build before having to sell everything first. Of course, we'll always be a selling club to a degree as all clubs are....if players do well, clubs higher than you in the food chain will try and tempt the player, happens everywhere. I just hope we have a bit more about us now to rebuff those and stop having to rely on sales to build a team, as that is an unsustainable and quite frankly pointless loop. The contract situation does make it more troubling as the club need to maximise any profit as it's an asset, so I'd expect and hope to see a statement come out between now and the summer with a new contract for Salisu. That would be a nice statement of intent from the new ownership and would tell us where our summer is heading.

This time last year we'd just loaned out Valery and Vokins, which left us with KWP and Bertrand as our only full backs! Now we have Tino, KWP, Perruad, Valery and Small on our books. The club said they were focused on adding to the full back area's, and they delivered on that! That's why I have real confidence in the summer window as it seems as if we have a well thought out plan for how we evolve this squad...bit by bit.

Good to see him back! This 'break' has probably done him the world of good. Looking forward to seeing him back out there, but I'm still very intrigued to see him play in front of KWP....

I'm so, so sorry. It's hard to know what to say, but from your side there are certainly no apologies required. I wish you all the very best and my thoughts are with you.

Hope you're ok Minsk. Appreciate all the work you've put into this thread.

Absolutley agree, as you said those 3 signings (if we're not keeping Broja) need to be starters from day 1. If we sign young outfield players then they need to be in the Tino mould and ready to start from day 1. Redmond hasn't been awful this year, but we really need to stop flogging Redmond, Moussa, Elyonoussi, Theo as our 10's as we need so much better there. GK is a no brainer, needs to be an experienced starter. We can't go for an exciting up and coming kid in that position and I hope the club recognise that! Contracts are important to factor in as well - Salisu needs to be signed up, arguably need a new one for Romeu and KWP too. Those will take a chunk of the budget.

My hunch with Broja is that you'll get clubs like Newcastle flashing around their Saudi money in the summer even more so, as they didn't get their striker this window. Plus clubs like Villa and West Ham can go bigger than us in the market, West Ham in particular need a Broja type profile of player which they couldn't get in January. We know Chelsea are tempted when clubs bid high for their young players, and sadly I think a couple of clubs could bid higher than we're able to get to. Who knows, it may all be down to the player and he'll choose...but to not get my hopes up I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that we've missed the boat on getting him for longer than 6 months.

Sadly, yes, he did use to work with us. He should be strung up for crimes against transfers due to the mess he left us in. I'd say Matt Crocker has largely taken up his role as DoF, but Matt, Martin and the other Martyn work quite closely together to be honest.

Fabio Carvahlo deal off. Didn't happen in time. Could still be Liverpool bound long-term, but he'll be on the open market now.

I'm actually quite happy we didn't rush in and get a goalie in this window, I had an inkling we may try to get Johnstone now rather than the summer...but the fact we didn't is kind of suggestive to me that he's not really on our list anymore. So, I expect a first choice keeper in the summer - we've got to get this one right, a decent GK is worth so many points. Certainly an attacking number 10 and additional depth up top to replace Long, but also a first choice striker signing. I very much doubt it will be Broja, I'll happily be surprised...but I think that ship has sailed now. Just need to make the most of him these next 6 months and let him get us as many points as he can for us. So we need... New GK. New No. 10 New Striker (+ another for Depth and to replace Long) A new DM in the Romeu mould, we don't have that at the mo. Maybe CB, unsure - depends if Bednarek goes.

I'm sure we have our targets, we know who we want and the likelihood is that they're not available in this window. I don't think we're a club who will ever throw a deadline day signing in just because it looks exciting. There are loads of clubs who lap that up, but those clubs don't really have a philosophy. I'm content with how we operate, January is a bonus window to fill up emergency holes really....it should ever be seen as a window to 'take you to the next level', if it is...then the club has got it all wrong in the first place.

That was good fun. But it's also a shame we probably won't get to see the glorious playoff knockout this year. Just a mid-table l1 season for them, and probably for the foreseable.

'That's it' - not that there was anything in the first place!